A Larry David Look-a-like with David Grann
The Distraction: A Defector Podcast
Defector Media
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Drew and Roth are joined by David Grann, bestselling author of The Wager, Killers of the Flower Moon, and other precious tomes, and staff writer at The New Yorker! And, better yet, the Knicks made the finals for the first time since 1999! Is this the best Knicks team of David’s lifetime? And what celebrity Knicks fan annoys him the most? Could David take Timothée Chalamet in a fight?
Do you want to hear your question answered on the pod? Well, give us a call at 909-726-3720. That is 909-PANERA-0!
Stuff We Talked About
- NBA state of the art
- Mark Cuban’s Folly
- Game day disguises
- Courtside Pazuzu
- Let’s Make a Deal contestant Spike Lee
Sponsors
- Factor, where you can get 50% off and free daily greens per box
- Mint Mobile, where new customers can get three months of premium wireless service for $15 a month
Credits
- Hosts: Drew Magary & David Roth
- Producer: Brandon Grugle
- Editor: Mischa Stanton
- Production Services & Ads: Multitude Podcasts
- Subscribe to Defector!
About The Show
The Distraction is Defector's flagship podcast about sports (and movies, and art, and sandwiches, and certain coastal states) from longtime writers Drew Magary and David Roth. Every week, Drew and Roth tackle subjects, both serious and impossibly stupid, with a parade of guests from around the world of sports and media joining in the fun! Roth and Drew also field Funbag questions from Defector readers, answer listener voicemails, and get upset about the number of people who use speakerphone while in a public bathroom stall. This is a show where everything matters, because everyone could use a Distraction. Head to defector.com for more info.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're back. We're back. It's a distraction. I'm Drew. That's Roth. How you doing, Roth? I'm good, man. How are you doing? You know what? It's cloudy, hot and muggy outside and has been for like the past two weeks. So I couldn't be happier. It's my favorite kind of weather. This guy loves to go out there and get a weird little oval-shaped sweat stain on the back of his t-shirt. |
| 0:23.1 | That's Drew's passion. |
| 0:24.7 | So it just feels good, you know? |
| 0:27.3 | It feels like real summer, you know, we just, everything's wet. |
| 0:31.3 | You know, I have to wipe the dog off thoroughly after he's taken a piss. |
| 0:34.9 | You know, it's just a magical time. |
| 0:37.3 | We had a few days of that last week when it was hot, and I remember saying to my wife, this is not a sentence I'm proud of, but the smells were back. Like, we were, there's a couple of blocks in our neighborhood that just have, have smell issues. And I was just sort of like, yeah, there it is. Like six months of dog piss have awakened |
| 0:54.8 | from the winter. Like is that sort of like also like the New York hot garbage smell? |
| 1:00.2 | Yeah. Yogurt notes. Lots like, I mean, it's terrific. I'm really looking forward to four |
| 1:05.3 | consecutive months of it. Our guest is the acclaimed writer David Grant. He's back, author of the Wager and Killers |
| 1:13.4 | of the Flower Moon, among other precious tomes. How you doing, David? It's good to be here. |
| 1:17.8 | Great to have you here. Now, normally we would have David on to talk about whatever remarkable |
| 1:21.8 | piece of history he had just unearthed. But there's really no time for that shit this week, because |
| 1:26.2 | David, David, David Gran, your New York |
| 1:29.7 | Knickerbockers have reached the NBA finals for the first time since 1999. |
| 1:36.0 | Oh my God. |
| 1:37.4 | How you feel? |
| 1:38.7 | I, you know, I'm almost speechless. |
| 1:41.2 | It's been the most incredible ride. |
| 1:42.6 | I am a classic Knicks fan in which I expect disaster at every turn and to watch us to win. |
| 1:50.0 | Why? How could that be? I just don't know what happened. The flashbacks, the PTSD. Even in that game when we were up by 30, I was still feeling a little bit anxious. But, you, but you know, they've just, it's been just an incredible run. It's such a likable team, all get together at the right time. The world that's kind of shit, but the Knicks are great. So it's, it's, it's been a great, great, uh, few weeks. I, I love that for you. Literally no team has ever gone on a more dominant postseason run than the one these |
| 2:19.3 | Knicks are on. |
... |
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